


Under control

by DaZeli



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: M/M, superhero au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-17
Updated: 2016-02-17
Packaged: 2018-05-21 04:02:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6037251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaZeli/pseuds/DaZeli
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dex is a fire elemental who have no control over his powers.<br/>After living on the street for a year, a guy with a mustache come recruit him for a superhero group.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Under control

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [ sadquebecois ](http://sadquebecois.tumblr.com/) for betaing this for me!  
> Hope you guys enjoy!

Dex was a fire elemental. He had been like that since he was born, and yet at 19 years old, he still had no idea how to control this ability. He had been living on the street for about a year now; he had always been the black sheep of the family, and the fact that he accidentally burned his house down made him run away. Since then he had been homeless. He had been doing little jobs left and right to earn money for food and other essentials at the dollar store, but he could never afford to rent something.

He was living alone. The other homeless people didn’t like him because he was a monster, so he never made any friends. Dex never approached anyone either; he was too scared he would hurt someone or burn something, so he made it a point to stay away from everyone. It wasn’t like it was hard. Everyone was already avoiding him anyways.

Until one day, a strange guy with a mustache came up to him as he was sitting on a bench.

“Hey, you’re a fire elemental?” The guy asked.

Dex was scared. Nobody ever approached him, so this could only mean this person was up to no good. He knew people would go around and kill mutants like him to sell their bodies on the scientific black market. Some of the homeless people had tried to kill him in his sleep, and he also knew how rare elementals were. So he panicked.

“Don’t come any closer!” Dex said, getting up and backing away from the guy.

“Bro, calm down. I’m here to help,” the mustachioed man said.

“Nobody wants to help a monster — trust me,” Dex replied.

“Dude, I’m a mutant too, y’know. I saw you in a vision, and I know you’re the guy we need on the team. Just hear me out,” the man told him.

Dex calmed down a little and nodded to tell the man he was willing to listen. Apparently his nickname was Shitty, and he never used his first name. He was working with a group of mutant heroes, such as Jack Zimmermann, and he had been looking for him for days ever since he saw Dex in one of his visions. Shitty told him that he wanted him to join the group, and that it could actually be beneficial for him; he could get a home and they would teach him how to control his powers.

Dex wasn’t an idiot, anything would be better than what he was living at the moment, so he accepted the offer on the spot.

Shitty grinned at him, and told him to follow him. They got in his car, and Shitty drove out of the main city to a campus, parking in front of what looked like a frat house. Dex was getting nervous; Shitty felt it and reassured him.

“I know it doesn’t look like anything, but it’s easy to go undercover as college students. Nobody suspects college students y’know?” Shitty told him.

Dex felt himself relax a bit and followed Shitty inside.

“The others are on a mission. I’ll show you your room; you can take a shower and change. I foresaw you were homeless, so we went to buy a few things for you,” Shitty said as he was showing him his room in the basement.

The room was empty with the exception of the bed, wardrobe, and desk. The bed had covers, though, and it did have a bathing kit and a few set of clothes his size on it, as well as a welcome note, sitting there, waiting for him. It read:

_“Welcome to the group,_

_Shitty told us you were homeless, so we bought you these. You must be tired! You should shower and have a nap. Please tell Shitty what your favorite pie flavor is; this is important information._

_-Bitty”_

“Cherry,” Dex said.

“Hm?” Shitty asked from the doorway.

“My favorite pie flavor is cherry,” Dex replied.

“Oh yeah. Bitty wanted to know that. He actually asked me if I could foresee what your favorite flavor was. Bitty loves to bake,” Shitty grinned. “Anyways, the shower is in the room in the far left of the basement. I’ll give you the full tour later; I have things to do. Make yourself at home bro,” he finished before leaving Dex alone.

Dex took the pyjamas out of the pile of clothes and picked up the bathing kit and went to the bathroom. Everything in the basement looked fairly new compared to the rest of the place, so he assumed that they must’ve finished it not too long ago; it looked recent, but it wasn’t anything fancy.

He started the water, and Dex felt so much better. It had been so long since his last shower that he had almost forgotten how much he loved the feeling of the cool water on his forever-hot skin. He stayed in there for a long time and only got out when he felt his fingers getting pruny.

Once he was dried, shaved, and dressed, he felt pretty tired. He slipped under the covers of his bed and fell asleep almost immediately. The bed was a twin, but the mattress was much more comfortable than any bench or grass he had been sleeping on for the past year.

-*-

“Is he okay!?” Dex heard someone say as he slowly regained consciousness.

“Shh, Chowder. Can’t you see he’s sleeping? We should leave him be,” someone else said.

“He’ll have to wake up, my cherry pie can’t wait for him forever,” Dex’s eyes fluttered at the words.

“Ah, he’s waking up!”

At that, Dex’s eyes snapped open, and he came face to face with a young asian boy who was smiling at him with the definition of puppy eyes. Dex jerked up in surprise, his head bursting into flames.

“Chowder! Don’t scare him; he’s already nervous enough,” a short blond boy said.

“Sorry,” the other boy replied.

“Dude, _chill_ , or you’re going to burn your room down,” another guy said to him.

Dex looked at him in confusion. He didn’t know how to stop the flames — he literally didn’t know how to control them. Why was he telling Dex to — suddenly the guy walked up to him and put an hand on his shoulder. Dex’s first reaction was to burst into flames once more, but then there was a cold feeling overflowing in his body, and the flames went away.

“You really don’t know how to control them, do you?” the guy asked him.

“Of course not, why do you think I’m here?” Dex replied, frowning.

“Dude, _chill_ ,” the guy told him again, and Dex could feel the flames coming back up, but the guy stopped them.

“Alright Nursey, leave him alone. My pie is almost done cooling, and I want him to be the first to eat it. Poor boy looks like he needs proper food in his body. Shoo! Upstairs, both of you,” the young blond boy told them.

They left, and Dex was alone with the blond, who was shorter than the others but was obviously in charge.

“Sorry about that. Chowder was so excited to meet you he burst into your room. I’m Bitty, by the way. Happy to meet you!” Bitty told him, smiling. Dex felt much better.

“William,” Dex replied.

“I’m sure Ransom and Holster will give you a good nickname. Now how about some pie? I’ll let you change, and you can meet us in the kitchen,” Bitty said before leaving the room.

Dex changed into his new clothes and went upstairs. He felt nervous, but Bitty’s presence had been reassuring, so he made his way to the kitchen.

“Bro, good to see you. You look much better!” Shitty told him.

“Nice to meet you. What’s your name?” a tall blond guy asked.

“William. My name is William Poindexter,” Dex replied, shyly.

“Dude, we’re calling you Dex from now on!” another guy said before fist bumping the other.

“Alright then, Dex, let’s do the presentation round. I’ll go first; my name is Larissa Duan, you can call me Lardo. I’m a shapeshifter, and I’m the manager of this group,” said a short girl — the only girl in the room, Dex noticed. “Ransom, you’re next.”

“My name is Justin Oluransi. People call me Ransom; I’m telekinetic and a telepath.”

“My name is Adam Birkholtz, Holster for short. I can manipulate energy, and I am also a telepath.”

“I’m Eric Bittle, my nickname’s Bitty. I have healing powers, and I’m an empath.”

“Like I told you, I’m Shitty. I do astral projection and psychic navigation.”

“Jack Zimmermann, super strength and endurance.”

“I’m Chris Chow, but you can call me Chowder! I have super speed and reflexes!”

“Derek Nurse. Call me Nursey. Ice sub-elemental.”

“You’re a fire elemental, right!? Shitty told us you were, and you burst into flames earlier, right!?” Chowder asked him as soon as the introductions were over.

Dex simply nodded, and Bitty put a plate full of pie in front of him. He devoured it. He hadn’t had such delicious food in a long time, and Bitty’s pie was so good. Bitty smiled at him, visibly content with Dex’s reaction.

“So, what do you think?” Bitty asked him.

“This is the best thing I’ve eaten in the past two years,” Dex replied.

“Well good, you need a good meal in you. I won’t let you skip dinner once,” Bitty told him.

Dex nodded again, and when he was done, he helped Bitty put the dishes in the dishwasher despite Bitty telling him he shouldn’t and that he should go rest. Once the dishes were done, Dex went back to his room. He sat down on his bed and looked at the wall. He really didn’t know what to do, and he wasn’t really tired. He knew everyone was in the living room, but he didn’t feel like joining them.

Eventually he slipped back into his pyjamas and went to sleep.

The next morning, he was woken up by Lardo, who came to take measurements for his suit. He went upstairs, Bitty gave him breakfast, and he went outside because he felt like he needed some fresh air. He walked down the street before coming back and being greeted by Chowder. He had just come back from a quick — in his case a super quick — stop at the store to buy groceries for Bitty.

“Hi Dex!! You went for a walk? Oh that’s great! We should totally make you visit campus!” Chowder told him, visibly excited.

“Hm, sure,” Dex replied.

“Great! I’ll go get Nursey! You’ll see, it’s the best place ever!” Chowder said before running off to go find Nursey and coming back not even a minute later.

And with that, they were off to visit campus.

-*-

Shitty had told them that they would be getting a new member on the team and that he was a fire elemental currently homeless in the city. Bitty, whose heart was as big as the house itself, said that if their new member was currently homeless, they should buy him a few essentials; not just clothes and a bathing kit, but also covers for the bed and other things that he could need. Nursey agreed with the idea and went shopping with Bitty. He bought most of the things, and Bitty went to set up the room.

Shitty was gone for a few days. He texted them that the guy was much harder to find because he never stayed at the same place. A few days later, he texted them in the group chat saying: “I found him, but we’re gonna have a lot work on our hands.”

Nobody wanted to ask, but when they came back from their training that day, they found Shitty in the kitchen on his laptop. They knew that meant the new guy was there, but Shitty looked pissed.

“What’s up Shits?” Ransom asked as they entered the kitchen. “You brought back the new guy?”

“Yeah, well, did you get my text?” Shitty asked back.

“We did, but we don’t know what you meant by it. Please explain,” Jack told him.

“Alright, first of all — poor dude needs psychological attention,” Shitty started.

“What?” Nursey asked.

“Dude, he’s afraid of himself; he told me he was homeless because he fucking ran away when he burned his family’s house down on accident. He has no control over his powers, and he calls himself a _monster_ for Christ’s sake! He told me that some people on the street tried to kill him in his sleep. This poor guy got _fucked up_ ,” Shitty told them.

“And where is he?” Bitty asked.

“In his room, probably sleeping I —” he didn’t get the chance to finish; Chowder had already disappeared into the basement.

Ever since Shitty told him someone would be joining them, Chowder had been overly excited to meet them. Nursey ran downstairs with Bitty, who let his cherry pie cool on the counter, to make sure Chowder wouldn’t do anything that could end badly. Of course, the first thing Chowder did was go into the new guy’s room.

Nursey looked at the guy, and he didn’t look relaxed at all; he wondered if he was really asleep, because he looked too tense and uncomfortable for someone who was sleeping.

“Is he okay!?” Chowder asked.

“Shh, Chowder, can’t you see he’s sleeping? We should leave him be,” Nursey told him. The guy did look like he could use some real sleep.

“He’ll have to wake up eventually, my cherry pie can’t wait for him forever,” Bitty said.

“Ah, he’s waking up!” Chowder said, bending down in front of the bed.

The guy opened his eyes quickly and let out a gasp of surprise as he jerked into sitting position and burst into flames. Nursey couldn’t take his eyes off of him; he looked scared and nervous. He didn’t blame him — he couldn’t blame him.

“Chowder! Don’t scare him; he’s already nervous enough,” Bitty scolded.

“Sorry,” Chowder said.

“Dude, _chill_ , or you’re going to burn your room down,” Nursey told the guy.

The guy looked at him in confusion, like he didn’t know what Nursey meant by that. Maybe chill wasn’t an expression people used where he was from? Whatever it was, Nursey wasn’t letting him burn down the house on accident. He approached him and put a hand on the guy’s shoulder, using his ice powers to tame the flames.

“You really don’t know how to control them, do you?” Nursey asked.

“Of course not, why do you think I’m here?” the guy replied, frowning.

“Dude, _chill_ ,” Nursey told him. He saw the flames come back up and he froze them again.

“Alright Nursey, leave him alone. My pie is almost done cooling, and I want him to be the first to eat it. Poor boy looks like he needs proper food in his body. Shoo! Upstairs, both of you,” Bitty told him and Chowder.

They obliged and went back upstairs.

Bitty joined them soon after, telling them that their new teammate would be coming up shortly. When the boy came in, he looked nervous and shy. He was tense and obviously stressed out. Bitty made him sit down with the others.

“Bro, good to see you. You look much better!” Shitty said.

“Nice to meet you. What’s your name?” Holster asked.

“William. My name is William Poindexter,” he replied, not even looking them in the eyes.

“Dude, we’re calling you Dex from now on!” Ransom said before fist bumping Holster.

Then they went through introductions before Bitty gave them some pie. Dex devoured his slice, and Nursey couldn’t blame him; he looked way too thin, and if he didn’t know Bitty would make sure he’d eat properly, Nursey would’ve been worried.

When they were done, Dex insisted he be allowed to help Bitty with the dishes and everyone else went to the living room. Bitty joined them, but Dex went back to his room.

“I have never felt so much stress built up in one person,” Bitty said as he sat down.

“You can’t blame him, but we do have some work to do with him before he’s ready to go on missions,” Jack said.

“Yeah, I was thinking of starting designing his suit tomorrow. Shitty, Bits, you guys should make sure to make him emotionally and psychologically stable. We’ll start the training slowly; Nursey, you need to teach him how to control his powers. Jack, Ransom, and Holster can take care of the rest,” Lardo said.

“And what about me?” Chowder asked.

“Well, you can always help me with the design, and you should help him socialize; show him around and stuff, make him trust us,” Lardo replied.

And the next day, Chowder took his mission to heart. As soon as he saw Dex, he almost jumped on him. It turned out Dex had been walking down the street outside but hadn’t really gotten a full tour, so Chowder decided to show him the school and that Nursey had to come.

Chowder showed Dex around, and Nursey made it a point to calm him down because he could tell Dex wasn’t following half of what Chowder was saying. Dex wasn’t really saying anything; he was just nodding and walking along. Nursey thought that this shyness was probably due to the fact that he was in a foreign environment and that he didn’t trust them yet. He did look guarded and uncomfortable, but a little better than the day before.

When they came back to the house a few hours later, Dex wanted to go back to his room, but Bitty caught him. He made Dex have lunch and told him that Shitty would come talk to him later.

After lunch, Dex went back to his room and Shitty joined him in there. About two hours later, Shitty came back, grabbed a beer, and joined them in the living room. The others had joined Nursey and Chowder there in the meantime.

“So… How did it go?” Chowder asked.

“I’ve seen some shit, brah. Like his dreams are just nightmares after nightmares! No wonder he wasn’t able to relax. Like, wow. This is the worst case I’ve ever seen,” Shitty told them before shotgunning his beer.

“Like what?” Jack asked.

“Well, for starters, everyone is blaming him for the woes of the world, and he blames himself too. I’ve seen fucking nine-year-old him apologize to his parents for being a _monster_ after relatives said that he’s a disgrace; that a monster like him shouldn’t be alive. That’s not even the worst part of it,” Shitty told them.

“Is he gonna be okay?” Bitty asked, worried.

“Well, hopefully he’s going to be able to sleep better. My powers are limited, but I tried to reduce their frequency. He shouldn’t think about them all the time for a while. You’ll have to work on his confidence, Bits. It’s important that we work on that, because I saw that he could be incredibly powerful,” Shitty replied.

“And what’s he doing now?” Ransom asked.

“He’s sleeping. After all that work in his brain, he’s pretty exhausted,” Shitty replied.

“Well I’ll go start dinner now, and I’ll wake him up when it’s ready,” Bitty said as he got up and headed to the kitchen.

“I started on the design of his suit. Chowder, what do you think?” Lardo said, showing her sketchbook to Chowder.

“Oh my God, this looks so cool, Lardo! Are you gonna use fire proof fabric?” Chowder said.

“Of course, Chow. Of course,” she chuckled.

And on that note, Shitty took another beer. Nursey did the same, lost in his thoughts.

-*-

Dex woke up when Bitty came to tell him dinner was ready. He was feeling much more relaxed than before, and the guys were able to make him open up a little more. He still didn’t feel at home, but he felt more welcome and more comfortable being around these people he barely knew.

After dinner, Lardo showed him the design for his suit. He praised her and told her about a few technical stuff to change. She agreed and patted his back before leaving him alone. He joined the others in the living room for a while before he went to bed, too sleepy to do anything. He slept well that night.

After a few weeks, Dex looked much better; he wasn’t so thin anymore, so Jack started training him. Nursey showed him the basics of controlling his powers, but it proved to be much harder than he had thought it would be. Fire was a wilder element than ice, so it demanded a lot more from Dex than what Dex could do right now. Bitty and Shitty worked on him for a while, boosting his confidence and making him feel less like a monster and more like an actual human being with a slight mutation.

He also slowly started to open up, first to Chowder, who had wanted to befriend him from day one, then Shitty and Bitty, and he slowly worked his way through the team. They gave him a cellphone and added him to the group chat. Dex also proved that he was shockingly good at video games by kicking everyone’s asses at Smash Bros. and Mario Kart.

He looked better, felt better, and was doing better. He was finally seeing the light on the other side of the tunnel, meaning that his days of hardship were behind him and that he could finally be happy.

-*-

Dex was doing better, and Nursey noticed; Dex had much more control over his powers. He couldn’t use them as he wished, and he still bursted into fire because of strong emotions, but overall, Dex was much more confident in his abilities. Jack gave him a physical training schedule while Ransom and Holster were teaching him strategies so he could learn about the team dynamic.

In the meantime, Lardo had finished his suit, so he was able to join the group training at Faber. Things were only getting better, and everyone was very optimistic that soon enough, Dex would be able to join them on real missions.

On the other side, since Dex was more confident and open, they learned how much of a strong character he was. He was stubborn and easily pissed off, and he and Nursey argued a lot; mostly about going offensive or defensive. They never agreed on strategies and were basically unable to work together. What seemed to be a great idea of teaming up two elementals turned out to be a literal catastrophe.

Nursey was angry at Dex. They were supposed to be a team — they needed to agree on things. However, when they were able to work together they were actually pretty strong. These were the best moments, even when Dex failed to summon his flames, which happened a lot. Chowder was so happy when they worked together.

But these moments were short lived.

They had a falling out, and it wasn’t the usual fight; it was much bigger, with a mixture of flames and ice flying everywhere. Nursey was telling Dex he should try harder, and Dex was telling him he simply couldn’t. Dex screamed at him to shut up, his entire body bursting into flames. The explosion of fire was pretty unexpected, and all the flames went away at once when he heard:

“Ouch! Dex, it hurts!” Chowder said as he was grabbing his arms.

The explosion had hurt Chowder, and Dex became panicked, sputtering apologies.

“Chowder are you okay?” Bitty asked, worried.

“You should be more careful, Dex,” Jack told him.

Dex apologised and backed away from the group. Nursey tried to stop him from leaving, because Chowder wasn’t that badly hurt, but Dex had already run away to God knew where.

When they went back to the house, Dex was nowhere to be seen. Chowder had gone to his room to try and find him, but he only found his suit laying on his bed with his cellphone and basically everything else. They guessed he had gone out for a walk, probably needing some time alone.

But when he still wasn’t there the next morning, they couldn’t help feeling a little worried for him. They still let it slide until Shitty had a vision in his dream two nights later that didn’t tell him anything good. He saw a chain of events: Dex sitting on a bench, looking scared, then someone talking to him, Dex following them, people tying him up, and the last vision was one of Dex, tied up and unconscious, getting thrown in what looked like a gigantic freezer. He wouldn’t have been worried if Dex knew how to use his powers to break free, but Dex still had trouble controlling the flames when they came up, nevermind trying to make them appear at will.

When he woke up, he made everyone get up and told them everything. In a matter of minutes, the whole team was getting ready and trying to locate Dex. Shitty told them whenever he saw something similar to his vision and after hours of searching, they ended up in front of a huge abandoned building. They got in, taking out the guards and searched for the freezer. Of course, Chowder found it first. No one seemed to be around, but forcing the lock open proved to be very hard.

Luckily, Nursey froze the lock and made it easier for Jack to break it. They opened it and found Dex inside, unconscious. He had been hit at the back of his head pretty hard. He was also abnormally cold for a fire elemental, so they hurried to bring him out of there. They took out the whole gang of kidnappers on their way out; Nursey felt incredibly angry at them and took it out on these thugs who had probably been planning to sell Dex’s body to the black market.

They untied Dex in the car. Nursey and Chowder stayed with him at the very back, even if Chowder could’ve easily ran back home, he didn’t know the way, so it was safer for him in the car.

Once they got home, Nursey helped Bitty put Dex to bed, making sure he was warm. Bitty made him swear to go get him when Dex woke up.

Nursey stayed in the room and watched over Dex. He was still unconscious, but he was a little warmer, although warming him up proved to be difficult. Fire elementals weren’t meant to be frozen to death, that’s for sure. He caressed Dex cheek with one hand, wondering why he felt so attached to him.

It was true that he had felt drawn to him since he first saw him. It was true that even with his stubborn nature, Dex had been warm, both literally and figuratively. He always felt warm when close to him. Maybe it was only because he was a fire elemental — he was forever cold and naturally attracted to warmth — but Nursey couldn’t help but feel something more.

He was taken out of his thoughts when he saw Dex’s eyes flutter open. He didn’t look good; his eyes were glassy and unfocused. His face was red, and he looked sick; which, on second thought, was probably normal since he had been locked in a freezer for hours. A normal human would’ve been dead, but since Dex was made of fire, he was lucky he only got sick.

Nursey quickly took his hand off of Dex’s face.

“Nursey…?” Dex croaked, looking in his general direction.

“I’ll go get Bitty. Stay down, okay?” Nursey told him.

“I’m sorry,” Dex said before Nursey left the room.

Nursey went to get Bitty in the kitchen, who brought Dex soup and pie and other things a sick person could need. Because they all got sick at some point; mutants were not immune to disease, and Bitty had always been there when one of them got sick.

Meanwhile Shitty was trying to get inside Dex’s memory, but was unable to because his path was blocked by the fuzziness of Dex’s illness. He gave up for the moment, saying he would try again when Dex was better.

Since they were all tired, they went to sleep early that day. Nursey stopped by Dex’s room and looked at him sleep. He could feel the heat radiating from him in waves, his face was all red, and the cloth Bitty had just put on his forehead was already dry. Nursey rinsed it again before putting it back on Dex’s head. He sent Dex a wave of cold air, and he saw Dex relax in his sleep as Nursey was keeping his temperature at a normal level.

Eventually, Nursey stopped and went to sleep in his own bedroom. He woke up an hour later because he could hear mumbling coming from Dex’s room, which happened to be right next to his. He got up and went to check on him; Dex was tossing and turning; the room was incredibly hot. Nursey got closer and put his hand on Dex’s forehead. The cold of his hand made Dex calm down, and Nursey sent him a cold wave all the way through his body. The last thing they needed was Dex overheating.

For a moment he thought about leaving, but then realized that he would probably have to get up again later to come cool him down. He decided to lay down next to Dex, cooling the bed in the process. Nursey would’ve been lying if he said he didn’t like the warmth Dex was giving him.

The next morning, he woke up to Bitty bringing Dex breakfast. He was surprised to find Nursey there, but once Nursey explained himself, it all made sense for Bitty. He let Nursey help wake Dex up and feed him. The ginger looked a little better, but he still wasn’t really there mentally, the fever making everything fuzzy.

Chowder came to check up on Dex. He found him curled up against Nursey, who was typing on his laptop.

“Nursey?” Chowder asked.

“Hi Chowder. Came to check up on Dex?” Nursey asked in return.

“Yeah! I was just heading out, but what are you doing here?”

“Well, I’m keeping his temperature at a reasonable level. Like a cooling pad,” Nursey told him.

“That’s nice! Hope it’s not bothering you to do this. You know you don’t have to,” Chowder said.

“It’s fine, C. The sooner Dex gets back on his feet, the better,” Nursey replied.

“Do you think he’ll be okay? I think it’s my fault he ran away…” Chowder said.

“It’s not your fault Chowder, it’s ours. We shouldn’t have been fighting in the first place. You got hurt, it wasn’t your fault,” Nursey told him.

“Still, I feel bad about it,” Chowder said, sounding apologetic.

“I know Chowder, me too,” Nursey said, patting his back.

At that, Chowder left. The others checked on Dex during the day, and everyone seemed surprised to find Nursey there.

Nursey couldn’t blame them. He normally wouldn’t have cared so much. He felt like everything was his fault; he was the one who made Dex angry when he knew how unstable his powers were, and that’s what ended up hurting Chowder and making Dex run away. If he hadn’t fought with Dex, none of this would’ve happened, and Dex wouldn’t be sick as a dog.

-*-

Dex got better after a few days of being bedridden and feverish, all thanks to Bitty’s nurturing. Shitty did an intervention to search Dex’s memory to find out what had happened; Dex had run away, and on the second day, a guy approached and told him he could help him. It turned out he led him straight in an ambush, and the attackers knocked Dex out. They took him to the building to lock him in the freezer until they could come get him that night.

Dex was no longer allowed to be alone outside the house, at least for a while. Of course, Nursey was in charge of keeping an eye on him most of the time. It was mostly to keep the flames under control, but he didn’t really need to intervene. Dex was feeling so… down that he he hadn’t even burned up once since he got better.

Bitty, since he was an empath, could feel how Dex felt and sat down with him to talk, but Dex had closed off to himself and spent most of his time in his room when he wasn’t training with them. He never went outside, and Bitty had to bring him his food if he wanted to make sure Dex ate something.

It didn’t feel like Dex anymore.

One day Nursey was bringing Dex’s food. He entered the ginger’s room and gave him the plate before sitting down on the desk chair. Bitty had asked him to make sure Dex ate everything, so he just sat there and watched Dex, who was barely eating anything. At that moment, Nursey swore he looked sad.

“You gotta eat bro,” Nursey told him, “Otherwise you won’t be able to keep up with the training.”

“Nursey?” Dex asked, ignoring his first statement.

“Yeah?” Nursey asked back.

“Do you ever feel like a monster? Like you shouldn’t exist?” Dex asked, looking down at his plate.

This was very serious. Nursey didn’t really know what to do; he wanted to call Bitty, but if Dex was talking to him right now it was because he wanted to talk to him, not Bitty. Since he was the only other elemental on the team, Dex probably thought that he knew how he felt better than the others. He couldn’t blame him for that.

“When I was younger, yeah. All the time,” Nursey replied, moving to sit next to Dex on the bed.

“Not anymore?” Dex asked.

“No. Ever since I came here, I have never felt like I didn’t belong. I found a new family here, and since then my life has been so much better. It just takes time, y’know,” he replied.

“I guess. I’ve never been with people who actually wanted me there before. It’s all new to me, and I just… don’t know what to do or how to act…” Dex admitted.

“Yeah, but everyone in this house knows that you’re trying. We won’t let you down, Dex,” Nursey told him.

“Yeah… I don’t think I’ve said it enough, but… Thanks, for coming to get me and all that. After what I did to Chowder, I just… couldn’t bear the thought of staying here, but you guys came to get me back.

“I’m… I’m happy you did, because I don’t want to go back to the streets,” Dex said.

“What happened to Chowder wasn’t your fault, okay? I was the one who was pushing you while I knew your powers were still unstable. I shouldn’t have pushed you like that, and I’m sorry, ” Nursey replied.

“I guess we should work on my powers again… I still need to know how to make my flames come up at will and how to control them,” Dex said.

“Yeah, but that’s for tomorrow. How about you come watch a movie in my room tonight?” Nursey proposed.

“Sure,” Dex agreed with a shy smile.

When Nursey came back upstairs with Dex’s empty plate, Bitty obviously noticed the change of mood coming from the basement.

“So… Y’all talked?” Bitty asked.

“Yeah, I guess he was having an elemental crisis… Hopefully things will get better now,” Nursey smiled.

“Well, I felt a shift in his emotions. I’m guessing they are,” Bitty smiled back.

Nursey put the dish away before going back downstairs and going to set up the movie and getting dressed for bed. Dex joined him a few minutes later, and Nursey made a place for him on his bed and started the movie. They were sitting pretty close on Nursey’s small twin bed; their shoulders and thighs were touching and Nursey could feel the heat radiating from Dex.

Halfway through the movie, Nursey took a glance at Dex and noticed that the tip of his hair was burning with very small flames. Dex was completely focused on the movie, and Nursey thought that the flames were probably linked to his emotions as he was watching. Every time something happened in the movie, Nursey noticed how the flames grew slightly bigger before dimming down again.

He found it adorable and somewhat endearing to see Dex so invested in the movie.

Nursey tried to focus on the movie until its end, and when the credit rolled and he paused the movie, it was to find Dex already asleep beside him. Nursey didn’t have the heart to wake him up, so he laid down with Dex and pulled the cover over them. He found the heat radiating from Dex very comfortable.

They woke up cuddled together, Dex apologized, but Nursey simply smiled and told him it was no big deal. He didn’t mention the thought that Dex’s blush, that made the tip of his hair and ears light on fire, was the most adorable thing ever. Dex apologized again nonetheless and went back to his own room. Once he was gone, Nursey turned to sleep where Dex had been, still feeling the warm trace of Dex’s body.

-*-

Nursey started training Dex again. Dex was getting better and better with his powers; able to dim the flames or make them appear at will. But no matter what, it seemed like Dex couldn’t detach himself enough from his power for the flames to stop reacting to his emotions. Nursey didn’t mind that at all, though. He found it cute how Dex would sometimes burst into small flames when embarrassed or frustrated.

Nursey wasn’t an idiot. He knew he had a crush on Dex, he just didn’t know why; was it because Dex was always warm and comfy? Or because he found him cute? Or because Dex had been working out a lot lately and it showed? He had no idea, but even if he did, he wouldn’t know how to deal with it. Even if Dex was mentally and emotionally stable now, there was still a slight chance that he could fuck up everything they’ve been working on by disturbing this quiet balance.

Of course, Bitty noticed, so Nursey went to talk to him about it. Bitty simply told him to follow his heart, which was the cheesiest thing Nursey had ever heard from Bitty’s mouth. He didn’t know how to apply this advice anyways; he didn’t even know if Dex was attracted to him, or even dudes in general.

Yes, he and Dex had gotten closer, but they still hadn’t shared that information with each other. Really, if Nursey was going to do anything, he was going to take a wild guess and pray Dex was also into him. He didn’t want to ask the others if they knew anything, because obviously they didn’t. Dex may have opened up to them, but Nursey was still the closest to him, and if he didn’t know, chances were others didn’t either.

So he decided to let it fly and see where it would get him.

-*-

Dex, on the other hand, had no idea what he was feeling. Ever since waking up in Nursey’s bed, pressed close to his soothingly cool body, Dex hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Nursey in all sorts of way that were definitely not from the friendship book.

Dex couldn’t help but notice how well Nursey’s suit fit him, how soft his hands were when he was showing him a specific motion during training, or how amazingly strong he was when they woke up pressed against each other after watching a movie together on Nursey’s bed.

Dex had never felt like this about someone before in his life, so this was all new to him. He would burn up every time Nursey would touch him, blush when Nursey praised him, and boil inside when Nursey was smiling at him.

He was so confused about his emotions and feelings towards Nursey that he had to go talk to Bitty, telling him he didn’t know what they were and that he needed help. Bitty simply smiled at him and gave him a few readings to do. Then everything became clear.

He was in love with Nursey.

But how was he supposed to deal with love? Was he supposed to get rid of it? Wait it out? What if Nursey didn’t feel the same way? How would he know? Dex had so many questions and so few answers that it drove him insane just to think about his feelings.

And the worst part was that he felt like Nursey didn’t even notice. Because Nursey and Dex had gotten close, both literally and figuratively, and Dex thought that if Nursey had even the slightest clue, that he wouldn’t be getting _this_ close.

But what Dex didn’t know was that it was the total opposite.

-*-

Nursey had noticed Dex’s behaviors, and he did pick up on them. He just didn’t know how to bring up the subject of feelings. They never talked about them, and when he asked Bitty, he had only told him to not be too brusque about it, because Dex was apparently all confused and mixed up. So Nursey decided to give it time.

He let Dex figure himself out, and they grew closer and closer. One day, when Nursey felt that Dex was emotionally ready for him to drop the love bomb, he invited Dex for some private training. Luckily, Dex agreed, so they went to Faber and started things like a normal training, except that during a break, Nursey started the conversation.

“Y’know, I meant to talk to you about something for a while now,” Nursey told him.

“Yeah? What is it?” Dex asked.

Their faces were incredibly close, and instead of replying and having the actual conversation like he had planned, he closed the gap and kissed Dex. He felt Dex burn up and burst into flames as he was responding to the kiss. Nursey felt himself melt in the embrace, almost overwhelmed by Dex’s heat. When they broke apart, Dex was a blushing mess, and Nursey smirked.

“I wanted to talk to you about my feelings for you. I like you — in a more than friends way — and I was hoping you’d feel the same,” Nursey said.

“Yeah. I do. I didn’t know at first but now that I can feel my body burning from the inside, I think I got it figured out,” Dex smiled.

“Now how about we do another kind of training?” Nursey asked him.

“Lead the way,” Dex replied.

They went back to the house and headed directly to Nursey’s room. They made out for a long time before they got interrupted by Chowder.

“Guys, there’s huge change in temperature and we were wondering if — Oh, my God, I’m so sorry! I didn’t know!” Chowder said.

“Chowder, please learn to knock,” Nursey told him.

Dex was literally burning up because of how embarrassing the situation was, and Nursey sent him a cold wave through his body to tame the flames.

“I’ll just say you’re busy. Bye!” Chowder said, closing the door and running back upstairs.

When they came back upstairs, they were chirped restlessly by the others, but from then on, nobody wondered about the occasional and sudden changes of temperature in the house. Now they knew exactly who and what was going on.

-*-

All of this made them a better team. They argued less, and they had each other’s backs. Dex soon became strong enough to go on missions with them, and he and Nursey were unstoppable. They were strong, and there was nothing they couldn’t take on together. However, it made them well-known, and it was only a matter of time for Dex’s family to take the honor of having brought up ‘such a hero.’ They tried to contact Dex, because of course they needed him to actually say it. No matter how many times Dex told them to fuck off, they always came back.

They were emotionally straining Dex to his bones.

But Nursey always made sure to be there when Dex needed him, and it helped a lot. One night the team was going to an interview. Of course, everyone focused more on Jack than anyone else, but as rising young heroes, they got their fair share of questions as well. And of course, someone asked Dex about these people who claimed to have raised him. Nursey felt worried for him, but Dex replied surprisingly easily.

“Whoever they are, they are not my family and they never were. My only real family is my team; they helped me when I needed it the most and never gave up on me. They saw my potential when all I was seeing was a monster, and they believed in me when I didn’t even believe in myself. I owe them everything,” he said, serious. “And these people who claim to have made me who I am today, who claim to have raised me well — they’re lying. My team did everything my biological family never did.”

With that, the others burst into cheers, getting up from their seats to hug him. They took a few other questions before it was over. As they were making their way back, Nursey held his hand and whispered.

“You did good, babe,” he said before kissing his cheek.

Dex smiled at him and kissed him back.

“Thank you,” Dex said.

Nursey smiled. Dex had came such a long way since the day Shitty found him. He was no longer scared of himself or his powers. He had regained control of his life and was now confident and proud. Every time Nursey saw him like that, owning himself and standing his ground, he couldn’t help but fall in love all over again.

Nursey may have been made of ice, but Dex was the only fire able to make him melt.


End file.
